MOOCS FOR REFUGEES: ACCESS AND SUCCESS IN HIGHER EDUCATION?

Access to higher education for refugees is currently a pivotal challenge for universities in host countries. The non-governmental organization "Kiron Open Higher Education" takes up this challenge by providing a special online curriculum that uses Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) at its basis to ease refugees' access to higher education. The paper presents a research project that is situated in this context and aims to assess the impact of different instruments implemented by Kiron Open Higher Education to foster study success of refugee students. In particular, a research design is developed that seems suitable to investigate the accompanying support services for refugees studying with Kiron Open Higher Education. Moreover, initial findings will be shared. Conclusions drawn from this research are supposed to help higher education institutions effectively reshape existing or create new support services for refugee students as well as to provide guidance to the students themselves as to which support services might facilitate their study success.